Update from Walkable Plants

Here's a letter we received from Jode Roberts of Walkable Plants, winner of the FEAST Project Grant at our third dinner event, that we wanted to share with you.

Hello good people of FEAST.

I wanted to let you know that this weekend I finally launched the

Walkable Planets project -- and thank you for providing the seed money

that ultimately got this rolling a couple years ago. It's taken a

while, but I am proud of the installation and hope you'll check it out

sometime soon.

What is Walkable Planets? The educational public art project includes

a series of nine planetary wayfinding signs, placed at a scale of

1-to-5 billion along Grace Street in the city's west end. The first

sign (the Sun) is on the southwest corner of Bloor and Grace. The

series runs two kilometres along the west side of the street to the

final sign (Neptune) at the southeast corner of Trinity Bellwoods

Park. The aim of the project is to inject passersby with a sense of

wonder about the scale of the universe, and to draw teachers from

nearby schools to use the signs as an educational tool.

Thanks again for your time and support.

WALKABLE PLANETS: www.walkableplanets.ca

JANE'S WALK SELF-GUIDED TOUR: www.janeswalk.org/canada/toronto/walkable-planets

Truly,

Jode

FEAST 07 grant winner

Congrats to Carbon Paper, the winner of the 7th FEAST Project Grant, with over $900 to contribute to this proposed project:

"Carbon Paper is a Toronto-based quarterly publication focusing on the contemporary visual arts culture within our city. Our free publication allows our contributors a freedom that many other publications are limited to and allows an access point for new dialogue, critical conversation, discussions, and a platform new artists, curators and writers. Our first Issue, launched in December of 2013 received successful feedback and as a free quarterly publication we are looking into the support of our community for grants and support to enable Carbon Paper the run it deserves.

One of our main objectives is to ensure the accessibility of this publication, which is why we have decided to be free. Through advertising sales and grants, such as the one provided by FEAST, we can help cover our overhead costs such as the production, printing and materials needed to ensure the quality of the publication. Specifically, the approximately $700 awarded by FEAST will help to directly finance the costs of printing, artists fees, and other related costs for our upcoming issue."

FEAST 07 happened Sunday, February 23, 2014.

FEAST 06 grant winners

Congrats to The Mass Arrival Project, winners of the FEAST Project Grant, and Humboldt Magnussen, winner of the Student Grant sponsored by XPACE.

Photo from Canadian Art online

About The Mass Arrival Project:

"Mass Arrival is a critical re-enactment of the so-called mass arrival of Tamil migrants in Canada via freighter ships in 2009 and 2010. On the anniversary of one of these arrivals, Mass Arrival collective will interrupt Toronto’s downtown with an open-air ship, docked in a public location, carrying with it, hundreds of white-identified Canadian-subjects.

Engaging hundreds of participants, on-lookers and gallery visitors in this staged arrival, artists Farrah Miranda, Vino Shanmuganathan, Graciela Flores-Mendez and Tings Chak will demonstrate that while some [white] arrivals form the basis national creation stories, others form the basis for fear, hysteria and the tightening of border controls.

Mass Arrival melds street theatre, public spectacle and community organizing, putting art into action. Inspiring political dialogue via Toronto’s arts community, the project uses sustainable tactics to question dominant narratives of citizenship and belonging, and is inspiring and mobilizing a large number of contributors.

Responding to an online survey of over 1,000 Canadians, which “found that 48 per cent of those polled would deport [Tamil] passengers... even if the refugee claims are found to be legitimate and there is no discernible link between the migrant and a terrorist organization” (Fong 2010); we will construct a visual marker to challenge such viewpoints."

Winning $300, here's Magnussen's project proposal:

"The project I will present will be a documentary film in which I will interview queer people on the subject of their voice, paying particular attention to people that have a stereotypically “gay” voice – that is, a voice that others would characterize as belonging to a gay person. I will conduct research and talk to academics that have completed research on the acoustic properties and social perception of “gay” voices. I am interested in queer people's relationship to their voice as an aspect of their identity, whether positive or negative. During this time, I will document myself going to a speech-language pathologist in an effort to have my self-described “gay accent” removed. During the speech therapy process, I will reflect on the process while discussing my own exploration of identity in connection to my voice. I hope the film will celebrate/question queer voices in Toronto."